This column is imaginary correspondence between Maddie the Motorist, Byron the Bicyclist and Patty the Pedestrian. Today, we have a guest from the Netherlands writing in.
Hello Cuzin Byron the Bicyclist;
Please excuse my poor riting but I am from Nederland. I can speak better English than rite it because I listened to Radio Veronica since I was a teenager. I hope spell check will catch my mistakes.
I am planning to visit you dis summer and wonder if we can bike in your area safely. In Holland, we have a lot of bike paths and drivers are used to mixing with cyclists on the road.
How safe is it in Williams Lake?
Signed; Dirk de Feitser
Hello Cousin Dirk de Fietser;
You are most welcome to come to Williams Lake and visit, cousin Dirk!
But for your question on safe bicycling, it depends on what kind of cycling you are interested in. Right now, we have only a few unconnected bike paths in the city of the Williams Lake area and most of them are shared with pedestrians. We do have some safe quiet streets as well.
If the river valley trail opens up, we will have an interesting dirt trail to travel. It is about ten kilometres to the Fraser River.
There are some “Share the Road” signs on the busy highways, but they are faded and mostly ignored. So most cyclists find safer ways to get to where they need to go.
Would you like to try mountain biking? We are known across British Columbia for our mountain biking. But a one-speed Dutch bike will not work for mountain biking. I can lend you my mountain bike and I will borrow another bike.
The best time to come would be in the summer. When would you like to come?
Signed; Byron the Bicyclist
Bert Groenenberg is a cyclist and pedestrian who has mainly biked or walked to work on Oliver Street for 30 years.